


Metal Bands

by einsKai



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Actor!Yamato, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Frog King, Humor, Living Together, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Roombas, Stylist!Ryuu, Uchouten Kazoku References, happy birthday matt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-21 18:06:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16581440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/einsKai/pseuds/einsKai
Summary: “We’ve been cursed by a witch.”“Correct.”“And you’re a frog now, and I have metal bands around my heart that will stay there until I do what?”“Find the love of your life.”





	Metal Bands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MattieMoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MattieMoo/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Matt! I hope you enjoy some Yamato on your special day!
> 
> This is the first written story of a bunch of Fairy Tales I'm planning, so look forward to that~
> 
> But now get to the reading, and have fun!
> 
> \- Kai

Ryuu stood outside the building, disoriented and confused. He had just had the strangest encounter he had ever had before and he hoped that he would never have to live through anything similar ever again.

“So, are you taking me with you or what?”, the voice below him said.

“Wait”, Ryuu whispered, “I need to process this situation first.”

“What’s so hard to understand about it?”

“We’ve just been cursed by a witch.”

“Yes. So what?”

“We’ve been literally cursed by a literal witch because we had a crash on the sidewalk when we both tried to evade each other and the witch with her groceries.”

“Correct.”

“And you’re a frog now, a _talking_ frog with glasses at that, and I have metal bands around my heart that don’t really do anything, which doesn’t make sense at all, but will stay there until I do _what_?”

“Find the love of your life”, the frog said nonchalantly.

Ryuu rubbed his temples: “This is too much for me. I think I need a drink.”

“Drinks sound great! What are we having? Do you have beer?”

“I can’t give a frog alcohol!”

“I’m not _really_ a frog. If I try and go home now I won’t be able to use my keys – also I don’t have them, they were lit.”

“What does ‘lit’ even mean in this context?”, Ryuu was at his limit. This frog was going to make him go insane.

“It means ‘lost in transformation’, obviously”, Ryuu was sure the frog was grinning with his little frog face, “You taking me with you now?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Ryuu knelt down and the frog hopped onto his hand. It was surprisingly heavy for its size of just a few centimetres, and Ryuu stood up straight again.

“Woah, this is really high!”, the frog whistled, however he did that, “How tall are you?”

“I’m 1,90m”, Ryuu said automatically. When one was as tall as he was the question came often.

“That’s hot.”

“Somehow hearing that from a frog doesn’t make me happy at all.”

While they were walking, Ryuu realised something.

“Wait”, he said, and the frog turned his head towards him, “I don’t really remember how you looked when you were human. That crash was way too quick for me to see anything. And we don’t know our names either.”

When the frog didn’t answer, Ryuu sighed and introduced himself first: “My name is Tsunashi Ryuunosuke, I own a beauty salon in the middle of the city, but I’m originally from Okinawa.”

Finally the frog seemed to have understood what Ryuu wanted from him: “My appearance doesn’t really matter, it’s nothing special anyway, my name is Yamato and I work as a salaryman.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Yamato-kun.”

“Likewise, Tsunashi-san.”

“Just call me Ryuu, I’d say our case is… special enough to not use honorifics.”

The frog nodded and shut up again, obviously enjoying the ride.

Quickly Ryuu had regained sight of where they were – it wasn’t far from where they had crashed into each other and had fallen into the shopping cart of the old woman, who had apparently been a witch.

It was only a short walk to his apartment over his shop, and when he opened the door, Yamato immediately hopped down from his hand and looked around.

“A nice apartment do you have here”, he said, “It’s small but comfy.”

“Thank you”, Ryuu said, “I’m still paying it off though.”

Before Ryuu could say anything else the frog had found something else that interested him.

“Is that a Roomba?!”, he asked excitedly, hopping towards the device that was resting in a corner of the living room, turned off ever since it had been put there.

“Yes”, Ryuu scratched his nape sheepishly, “My mother sent it to me for Christmas, because she was worries I wouldn’t be able to clean properly when I’m on my own. I never use it, but I felt bad not keeping it.”

While Yamato attempted to climb the Roomba, Ryuu realised something else: “Wait, don’t you have family or someone else you need to contact about your predicament?”

“I don’t have anyone like that”, Yamato said and finally succeeded in climbing (or mounting?) the Roomba, “I’m also on holiday right now, so my work doesn’t need to be contacted either.”

“That’s one less problem then”, Ryuu mused.

“Can you turn Roombert on?”, Yamato asked.

“You’re calling it ‘Roombert’?”, Ryuu chuckled, but flipped the switch regardless. The Roomba began to move around, exploring the room around it with all the curiosity a small cleaning machine could have.

Yamato didn’t answer anymore, but only laughed and cheered when the Roomba carried him across the room.

Ryuu went into the kitchen to get drinks, when he remembered that Yamato was literally a frog and couldn’t exactly hold a can of beer.

In one of his drawers he found a thimble and filled it with some of the beer from his own can.

“Yamato-kun”, he called, “I don’t have any fresh food in the house at the moment, so are you okay with some snacks or should I order takeout?”

“I’m a frog, I can’t eat human food”, was the answer.

“No way, I’ve seen a frog eat KFC before”, Ryuu called back.

“That’s anime!”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“I’m a magic frog though, so maybe I can eat it. Onii-san is fine with snacks~”

“A frog calling himself ‘Onii-san’ not being the strangest thing I’ve encountered today says a lot about today”, Ryuu said, while he carried a tray with his beer, the thimble and some crackers and flipsin bowls.

Yamato looked into his direction, still sitting on the Roomba. “Can you put me on the table, so I can eat with you?”

“Sure”, Ryuu said, and helped the frog sit on the tray, “If you need more to drink just tell me, I’ll get you more.”

The frog nodded and began munching on a flip. Ryuu turned on the TV.

“A drama I watch airs around this time in the evening”, he explained, “It’s a thriller, so I don’t want to miss an episode. If it bothers you I can record them though.”

“I don’t mind it”, Yamato said and turned towards the TV.

The opening theme of the drama played, showing severed legs and hands, a bunch of eyeballs and tongues in jars and cryptic messages written on post it notes. They all spiralled down a seemingly endless vortex, until they reached the protagonist at the lowest point of it. Said main character, a detective, reached for something or someone that was out of sight for the viewer.

“Is this some kind of detective drama?”, Yamato asked and took a sip from his beer.

“Yes”, Ryuu said, “The main character is a genius detective, and his sister found a corpse when they were hiking in the mountains around their home village. They came back there to celebrate a family birthday. Because there’s nothing else around, the detective suspects the victim and the murderer to be people they know from the village. Three of the residents are currently not there, but the victim can’t be identified. Other characters and suspects include the sister’s girlfriend, the detective’s assistant, a group of teenagers and a doctor. So far there have been other disappearances and they found a hidden cabin in the mountains in which apparently some more corpses, or parts of corpses, are hidden.”

“Interesting”, Yamato said, but shut up then, to watch the drama.

After the episode ended, revealing that the killer was a really messed up human being dissecting humans who were probably still alive at the time, Ryuu leaned back.

“So, do you enjoy these kinds of dramas? You like the mystery? The gore?”, the frog asked. They were both slightly drunk already, having shared a third can of beer.

“Actually I can’t really handle the bloody parts”, Ryuu confessed, “I only watch them because of that one actor. The detective’s assistant. His name is Nikaido-san and you could call him my celebrity crush, I guess?”

He sighed as the frog laughed.

“I’d love to work for him in a drama once. Being the personal stylist of someone amazing like him would be great.”

“I see…”, Yamato mumbled. He sounded as if he was deep in thought. Maybe that was just drunken sleepiness though.

“Hah, it’s getting quite late”, Ryuu got up from his sofa and stretched, “I have to work tomorrow, so I’ll go to sleep. Feel free to take the sofa or anywhere else in this apartment to sleep there. If you need anything tell me.”

“Good night.”

A yawning frog was adorable, but Ryuu tried not to think about how it made the iron bands around his heart clench too much.

 

This way they spend the next few days together, and before Ryuu knew it, days had turned into weeks.

At daytime Ryuu worked in his store, making beautiful people even more beautiful (that was his slogan, because he believed any person had something beautiful about them).

Yamato stayed in Ryuu’s apartment, playing with Roombert or on his phone that had been sent to Ryuu after a few days, along with his keys. There hadn’t been any clothes in Yamato’s package though, which made Ryuu wonder. Had they been included in Yamato’s transformation like his glasses, or was that old witch just a pervert?

On the days it aired they watched the drama together in the evening and discussed the episodes.

(“I think the sister’s girlfriend is the killer.”

“But she couldn’t handle the blood in that one episode. It could be the doctor though.”

“No, he’s too pure-hearted! Maybe they’ll go with a satanic ritual plotline and the teenagers murdered the people for their strange summonings.”

“I don’t think they’ll do that…”)

Today the final episode would air and Ryuu had been looking forward to it all day.

When he opened the door to his apartment he was greeted with a “Welcome home” that made the iron bands around his heart tighten with a feeling of longing.

He knew that this feeling of homeliness wouldn’t stay for long. He and Yamato might have become friends during the last weeks, but Yamato had his own life to return to as soon as he turned back into a human.

“I’m home”, he said, and saw Roombert turn around the corner to his bedroom, the frog sitting on top.

“Ryuu, I thought about our situation”, Yamato said, “I’ve come to a conclusion.”

“Yes?”, Ryuu took his shoes off and walked towards the frog riding on the Roomba.

“We’re that fairy tale!”, Yamato exclaimed, “I’m the Frog Prince and you’re Iron Henry.”

“Oh, the Frog Prince”, Ryuu said, “Does that mean you need a princess to kiss you, so you can turn back?”

“Well, maybe that would work too”, Yamato mused, “But the version I was thinking of has the frog being thrown against a wall and turning into a prince.”

“What kind of violent fairy tale is that?”

“The original one I assume, not the soft Disney one.”

“…I’m not throwing you against a wall.”

“That would be uncharacteristic for Iron Henry. That’s why I thought of another way. I’m going to have Roombert run over me.”

“Wait, that’s going to hurt –!”

Before Ryuu could reach and stop him, Yamato let himself fall off the edge of Roombert, landing right in front of it. The sensors of the little machine didn’t manage to notice the little frog, and without being able to do anything Ryuu had to watch Yamato being run over by the Roomba.

A cloud of foul green smoke merged from the floor where the frog and the roomba had been.

When it lifted after a while, Ryuu was greeted with the sight of an adult man, completely naked save for his glasses, covering his crotch with a roomba.  
But that wasn’t the most surprising thing for him.

“Hey Ryuu”, the actor he had admired for a long time said, “Mind borrowing me some clothes?

 _Pang_!

One of the metal bands around Ryuu’s heart burst.

 

A few minutes later, Ryuu had made tea for them, because it was too early to drink alcohol, he and Yamato were sitting in the living room again. He avoided looking at the other in his own clothes, because he knew that looking at Yamato in that chestnut turtleneck sweater that was way too big for him and the shorts that left too much skin bare, would be too much for his poor heart (and the metal bands around it).

“So you were Nikaido-san all along”, Ryuu started.

“Sorry for not telling you, but honestly, would you have believed me? The salaryman story is way more believable. It always works. I just have that aura of ‘responsible and stable adult’ I guess.”

“It’s okay, I really wouldn’t have believed you”, Ryuu said, despite not really agreeing with the stable adult thing. Watching someone play with a roomba for weeks kind of made it impossible to see them as a stable adult. He was still avoiding to look at Yamato directly.

“Yeah, sorry for misleading you about the drama”, Yamato said and chuckled, “You were right though, there is no satanic ritual plotline.”

“Right, the drama!”, Ryuu said and looked at the clock. The last episode was longer than the others and would therefore be aired earlier, “Oh, it’s over already.”

“I’ll send you a signed copy, as thanks for letting me stay here.”

“No, you don’t have to! It was no trouble, you were just…”

“…a frog after all, yes.”

Ryuu fell silent again.

“That sound earlier”, Yamato said, carefully, as if he was talking to an angry person, or an upset child, “Was that one of the bands?”

Ryuu nodded: “One of them broke.”

“They only break when you find your true love, right? Does that mean…?”

“It’s not like that! I’m sure it’s just because I’ve been a fan for so long and having you this close when I never thought I’d meet you, ever, is just –“

“So you don’t like me? Wasn’t my frog-self charming enough to make you fall in love with me?”, Yamato sounded disappointed, “Man, and here I was hoping that the roomba thing wouldn’t work, so I could make you kiss me…”

“W-Wait”, Ryuu almost stumbled over his words, “Are you saying that…?”

“Onii-san likes you”, Yamato said, and Ryuu cringed at the dumb nickname Yamato liked to give himself, “And I believe that the witch who cursed us both may have looked into the future and she probably saw exactly this.”

He climbed over the couch and straddled Ryuu’s thighs. His arms circled Ryuu’s neck in a half-hug, fingers slowly stroking the short hair on the back of his head. Ryuu couldn’t breathe.

“I could use a personal stylist”, Yamato mumbled and leaned down to brush his lips against Ryuu’s.

 _Pang_! _Pang_!

“Oho~”, Yamato grinned, “Were those the metal bands around your heart, or are you just happy to see me?”

“Both”, Ryuu answered and pulled the ex-frog closer.

 

Years later Ryuu and Yamato were sitting in Ryuu’s apartment that, over the last few years, had slowly become Yamato’s apartment too.

The TV was turned on, tuned in on an interview of Yamato’s. Ryuu’s boyfriend insisted they had to watch together.

“So, Nikaido-san”, the interviewer said, “You specifically requested that we talk about this here.”

He made a dramatic pause. Ryuu knew the interviewer; he was actually one of Yamato’s close friends and came over sometimes when they invited people for dinner.

“Are you in a relationship at the moment?”

Ryuu inhaled sharply. They had talked about making their relationship public, and while Ryuu had no problem with telling the world, Yamato had said to wait a little more. Of course Ryuu understood that – his career and life weren’t based on popularity only, and a public relationship would change things for Yamato.

“Yes I am”, the Yamato on the screen said. He looked into the camera for only a split second, obviously meant for Ryuu and Ryuu alone. A professional like Yamato didn’t usually look into the camera.

“What a surprise! How did you two meet?”

“It was quite… magical, I’d say. Love at first sight for both of us.”

“Interesting! And you’ve been together for how long?”

“A few years. I wanted to make sure that it was a lasting thing before I made anything public.”

“That is understandable”, the interviewer changed positions, coming closer and stage-whispering into Yamato’s ear, “But there’s a different reason you wanted to talk about this this evening, right?”

Ryuu’s eyes were glued to the screen now, the air of anticipation keeping him captivated. He didn’t notice Yamato moving next to him.

“That’s right Mitsu”, the screen Yamato really turned to the camera now, “Hey Ryuu. I know you’re listening, because I’m gonna make you watch this. The way we met wasn’t the most conventional one and definitely not how I imagined meeting my other half. But nonetheless I can safely say that I have never felt more at home than when I’m with you and Roombert.”

The Yamato on the TV breathed in, his cheeks a little flushed, like when he got drunk. Still, this blush was a different one.

“Will you marry me?”, he said, in synch with the real Yamato next to Ryuu.

He whipped his head around to look at his boyfriend who had gone down on one knee and was holding a box with a simple ring in it.

 _Zap_! He turned off the TV.

“Exchange those other metal bands for this one”, Yamato said and flashed him a grin.

“Okay”, Ryuu breathed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Which version of the Frog King did you know first? I didn't know the one where the princess kisses the frog until I was like 10! 
> 
> If you want to scream at me about anything you can do so on my [twitter](https://twitter.com/eins__kai) or [tumblr](https://einskai.tumblr.com/)~
> 
> Have a nice day!
> 
> \- Kai


End file.
